Baking, and baking....and still baking

Now, I get the desire to bake every once in a while, and usually that's only because I want to eat whatever it is I'm baking, and know that the only way I'll get to eat it is if I just bite the bullet and spend the time to bake it. Jackie, on the other hand, just loves doing it. She explained to me that she likens her desire to bake to my desire to landscape. It's not just the actual act that we like, but it's all the things that take place before you ever see an actual outcome. All the careful thought, research, and planning and then seeing the fruit of your hard work. We both love the same process, but in two very different arenas. So, she was so good to be in the kitchen helping the girlies learn how to bake my favorite cream cheese sugar cookies.

Ice cream cone feast

After her quick post zoo nap, Ane enjoyed her ice cream cone...all the kiddos did, but she just took extra long eating it so still had some left when we got back from the zoo.

Auntie Jackie planned a fantastic spa night for all us girlies while her boys were out of town. She planned some delicious recipes for us to munch on while she gave some fantastic foot rubs and we watched the movie Penelope for the very first time. We're all addicted, and I want to be her for Halloween, which is extraordinary if you knew how much I hated the effort that goes into accumulating Halloween costumes every year. Here she is instructing on the chocolate strawberry dipping process.


And here is the all time fruit monster...


Ane wanted to help with the sprinkles for after the strawberries were dipped.


Here was the overflowing snack table. I couldn't stand it and before all the food was brought downstairs from the kitchen I devoured an entire banana in the leftover melted chocolate. I prefer chocolate dipped bananas over strawberries any day. And can I say how miraculous it was that after two and half weeks of eating ourselves silly on all of Jackie's delicious concoctions that I only gained 2 pounds? I think I shed the extra ones working my way through the airports with all the kiddos and the carry-ons.

She even made these super cute personalized labels for individualized water bottles for each person. I know only one picture of the water bottles is necessary, but I included all three that I took because as I scanned down the row, something seemed to follow me...see if you can find what it was.



Here's another glimpse of the food. That tupperware container full of heaven was a peanut butter cream cheese with mini chocolate chip dip. You'd think I would've been sick considering how much I consumed, and I don't even like stuff with peanut butter usually. And it made for a pretty delish breakfast if I say so myself. Seriously. 2 pounds was a miracle.

Here's Ane using the great foot soaker that Jackie's friend Mary let us borrow. Thanks Mary!

Here's Auntie Jackie doing someone's nails. And I forgot to add that when she wasn't in the kitchen that day working on the food for the night, she spent it straightening and styling all of the girl's hair.




Thanks for a great night Jackie...

Wordless Wednesday - Ane calls this her Daddy Face...

Trip to the Columbus Zoo

When I asked my Dad what he thought we should see while we were in Ohio, he said that the Columbus Zoo is a great place to start. We got a screamin deal, thanks to Jackie's screamin deal prowess, and spent about 6 hours there. All the kids were such such good sports, through the humidity and all the walking. Truly. It was a great day.


This bell was making these cool gong sounds...

The night before we went to the movies and saw Kung Fu Panda 2, and so we were on the hunt for all the same animals that are in the movie. Tigress was much anticipated, and this tiger did not disappoint. As soon as our group came to the window she jumped from where she was resting to prowl back and forth repeatedly in front of the window, only to go rest as soon as we left and other groups came behind us. The timing was perfect, and she was definitely the star of the show. The kids just loved it!



















After seeing much more, we headed to some picnic tables to enjoy some lunch, and then headed off for all the bears. Check out the zoos bears compared to all of ours!



We ended the day by letting all the kids stand in front of these water spitting dinosaurs, and let them all get soaked. I was soaked and I never even stood in their water...eeew. It was a sweaty day, but it was worth it.



Afterwards we headed for McDonalds for some ice cream. Check out these cuties. They were playing while we were waiting for our ice cream order.


I don't think she was the only who felt like this after such a fun packed day. Next time we go back we need to see the other 3/4ths of the zoo that we didn't even get to that day!